Ann Patchett

Barack Hussein Obama II was born on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. His father, Barack Obama, Sr., left his family to attend Harvard University. After Harvard, he returned to Kenya where he died due to a car accident. His mother, Ann Dunham moved to Indonesia to do field research. Obama mother sent him to live with her parents in Hawaii because she was concerned about his education. He attended Hawaii's prestigious Punahou School from fifth grade until he graduated from high school. After…

combination of the supernatural realm and Romanticism. Jane Austen’s novel, Northanger Abbey, is an attempt to critique the seventeenth-century Gothic novel by identifying Catherine’s sensibility through her over fascination and addiction to reading—such as Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho. Austen utilizes Catherine’s obsession with novels as a means to highlight how such fascination has caused Catherine to become naïve and unaware of the real world. Moreover, due to the historical…

A Discussion of the Gothic tradition in the novels “Northanger Abbey” by Jane Austen and “The mysteries of Udolpho” by Ann Radcliffe. The genre of Gothic fiction has been a strong writing tradition since its birth in 1764 with the publishing of Horace Walpole’s “The Castle of Otranto”. The genre is a mix of both romance and horror with its clearest distinctions being a love of foreign setting and gloomy old buildings, a strong hero, swooning heroine and the constant looming of a monster or…

Theodore Robert Cowell, more commonly known as Ted Bundy, is undoubtedly one of America’s infamous serial killers. Before Bundy was executed in 1989, he confessed that he killed at least thirty women. However, Bundy’s former defense attorney John Henry Browne recently revealed that Bundy had confessed to him that he had killed more than a hundred people, including both women and men. Bundy also admitted that his first victim was a man, who differs considerably from Bundy’s preferred victims:…

Bye Bye Birdie, written by Michael Stewart with lyrics by Lee Adams and music by Charles Strouse. This musical created the foundations for a movie adaptation written three years later, starring Dick Van Dyke of the original Broadway production and Ann-Margret. The show’s quick jump from stage-to-screen filled the need to create a version…

John Wayne Gacy was a serial killer who had 34 victims. Like most serial killers, John Gacy had a horrific childhood that caused him to become the predator to others. John Gacy’s father was constantly physically and emotionally harming him. Most of John Gacy’s victims were male and this may be because he had a grudge against males because of his father. John Gacy was a serial killer who molested his victims before killing them, his childhood was similar to most serial killers and could be the…

Ted Bundy Christopher Gregory Community College of Aurora Theodore Robert Bundy, AKA Ted Bundy, is one of the more well-known serial killers in this nation. Before his death in 1989, he had confessed to thirty-six murders, but the number is likely much higher and some estimate it’s likely in the hundreds. Bundy was a serial rapist and killer, he raped his victims before beating them to death, that had a tristate murder spree. Bundy had escaped prison twice, before he was eventually caught and…

"I deserve, certainly, the most extreme punishment society has, and I think society deserves to be protected from me and from others like me." This quote from Ted Bundy, stated just days before his execution in Florida’s electric chair, shows that Bundy truly is a cold-hearted killer (Nichols 54). Bundy is thought to be responsible for the death of more than 30 women and girls, all with the same physical characteristics. Using tricks such as asking for help to find his dog or pretending to have…

In the 1970s, a shocking serial killer came to the public's attention. Ted Bundy seemed like a normal man; however, his true nature soon came to light. He became obsessed with young women and he was fixated to the point of murder. This seemingly charming man was ultimately revealed as the epitome of evil - a psychopathic killer. Bundy was connected to numerous rapes and murders; it is possible he killed over forty women, perhaps even hundreds. He eventually confessed to keeping victims' heads as…

Elizabeth Howlett's Story Elizabeth Howlett was born in Southampton, MA, but her roots are also in Amherst. When she was younger she had the nickname of Betsi, and the reason for is that her parents didn’t have a nickname and so they wanted all their sons to have one. She moved to Vermont when she was eight because her father wanted more land than the one he had in MA, therefore great part of her childhood was spent in VT. Here is her story: Life in the farm: Elizabeth or Betsi comes from a…